Following a highly acclaimed, record breaking run on Broadway, Scott Ellis’ production of Bernard Pomerance’s historical tale The Elephant Man transferred to London’s theatre Royal Haymarket for a 1 2 week season.

The US cast, led by Bradley Cooper, Patricia Clarkson and Alessandro Nivola have all joined the West End run. The play is based on the short life of severely deformed Joseph Merrick in Victorian London.

Alessandro plays the celebrated surgeon Dr Frederick Treves who saves Merrick form living in freak shows and takes him to a private London hospital for ‘rehabilitation’.

“In this version it is Treves to whom we look for emotional complexity. And Nivola delivers it beautifully,” writes Ben Brantley in the New York Times.

Alessandro, Bradley and Patricia have all all been nominated for Tony Awards in next month’s ceremony. I met Alessandro as he was tanking a break from final rehearsal at the Theatre Royal.

He saw the sketch and said “heeeeeeyyyy… nice sketch”. I asked him if they were goring back to New York for the Tony Awards which are on Sunday 7 June and he said they we were.